The numbers provided in many of the reports are cursory and not exposing some of the issues IT decision makers have to address.

Devices Covered in this Article

I looked at a few comparable devices and their associated costs including hardware, software and support. The devices are the following:

Juniper QFX3500 QFX5100 (it has been pointed out that the 3500 is a Trident+ and I should really compare the 5100 which is a TridentII).

Cisco Nexus 3172

Brocade ICX 7750

Pica8 5101 (it has been pointed out that the 5101 uses a Freescale P2020 dual-core CPU, the only non-x86 CPU box listed)

Edge-Core AS5712-54x (running either Cumulus Linux or Pica8 PicOS)

Licensing and Support

When you buy a license for Cumulus Networks Cumulus Linux, You are also provided with a network operating system with full L3 routing features. You are also provided with 24×7 support as part of the license.

With Juniper’s QFX3500 QFX5100 you get L3 routing features, and with the Cisco Nexus and Brocade’s ICX 7750, you get a base L2 OS with limited L3 features, None of these products include support.

Pica8 like Cisco, sells their OS and in different flavors, an L2 and a full L3 version. Pica8 does not bundle support with their software license.

All of the vendors offer support running anywhere from $800-$1600 a year and offering either software only or software and hardware support.

Creating the Comparison

I use the word reasonable to mean that the products are generally the same and that the comparison is as close as possible

A reasonable comparison between a Cisco Nexus 3172 at $14,000 with no support and no software would be a Edge-Core AS5712-54x at $6750 running Pica8 L2 software for $2199 and a total of $8949 making it 36% less.

Summary

No matter how you run the numbers, the difference is significant, with a ODM solution being 45% (fully loaded with 5 years support) to 64% (a basic L2 switch) of the cost (from most to least expensive) of the Juniper QFX5100, Cisco Nexus 3172, or a Brocade ICX 7750

Update

Changing out the Juniper QFX3500 for the QFX5100 added about $2500 to the price.